Supporting Veterans with the 'Write More Letters' Project

You can bet my coffee tasted extra delicious this morning in my #writemorelettersproject mug. 

In September of 2020 we as a community over on Flea Market Love Letters raised $1500 for Hope For The Warriors thanks to the combined efforts of Facebook fundraising, a private donation of a car for auction through the organization, and the sale of 'Write More Letters' Project mugs, masks, and shirts.

It was a whirlwind of four weeks. When I started working with Sinead Rafferty she asked me to come up with five ways I could grow Flea Market.  I wrote down "Fundraiser?" and "Merch?" in July. In 2021, I thought.

In August of 2020 I was interviewed on a popular podcast that brought me close to 1k followers on Instagram in a week. Talk about pressure! I was sent a message by a listener of the podcast, a woman named Emily who is the wife of a U.S. Veteran. She wanted to talk about the role of Veterans in my project.  

For two days I felt antsy: What could I do to thank the Veterans who had contributed the letters that built Flea Market Love Letters? 

I remembered my list from July. So I grabbed Sam Lemberger one day after work and told him my idea to make a merch line to fundraise -- inspired by the "Books and Ballots" fundraiser my friend Emma ran.  He made the 'Write More Letters' design and off went the little fundraiser that could via the great site Bonfire.

But where was I going to donate the funds? I knew I wanted to get it organized before September ended so I hopped on the line to the incredible Stef Woods who got me sorted with excellent, credible recommendations for U.S. Veterans organizations. She also encouraged me to open the Facebook Fundraiser and gently suggested to me to increase the goal when we met $250 in 24 hours. She suggested as well that I write this blog post as an F.A.Q. which I was eternally grateful for having to send out when the fundraiser kicked off.

Then it was a week of shifting from the work laptop to my personal laptop with a bite of dinner in between.  I wrote blogs, I scheduled posts, I recorded videos. And I prayed someone would buy at least a mug. 

And then all of the wonderful people came out of the woodwork and gave, shared, and messaged.  It was a surreal two weeks -- setting up the merch, launching the fundraiser, bugging the hell out of my networks  -- but in the end I drank my coffee this morning out of a mug which 100% of the proceeds benefited American Veterans and Military Families. 

Someone asked the other day if I was proud of myself. Not in the slightest. But I am proud of the people who helped get this done.  Thank you.